It's not the tile, it's the fact that you need another piece of wood for the mantle like Hansen said above.

The tile looks better with a complete mantel as shown with photo shop. I’m with Beth in not liking the large tiles but that individual taste. Im no designer but I think your granite would look good for fireplace

Here's how it would look with your granite. If you do the granite, you would make the board on the mantel a little less wide so the top marble piece is about the same width as the sides. I made the board wider on the tile version so that there was only one tile on the top and no grout line. This is more proportional.

Shown with FLD-1 Frameless Fireplace Door in Satin Nickel with Gray Glass

Shown with Polished Chrome Free Standing Fireplace Screen with Mesh Curtains and Bottom Mesh Panel. This provides a more proportional look of the opening by creating the illusion that the fireplace opening starts at the hearth.

That's your cocktail table in the before photo? Why do you need a mantel and surround at all, if the look you want is MODERN? Tear the whole thing off. Granite isn't all that modern either, unless honed. : ) Maybe a soapstone ? It can be done one piece and a flush hearth. Add a mantel only.....if you like.

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Thanks so much for the visuals Hansen Wholesale! This helps me alot with my decision making. Do you know where I could get the wood piece? Would it be Home Depot or a specialty fireplace store?

I think Hallett and Hansen have the best and most practical ( and dust free ) suggestion. Doubt that ready made pieces of wood to fit are available. Hire a carpenter to do it right, and match the grout color to the tile.

Material selection, proportions are all problems with this FP IMO.

Sorry. Mantel too small and underwhelming. I had a carpenter build mine up and saved money on tile and granite for now. Not crazy about tile specially on floor. My carpenters work attached

wow! how did he build it up?

We decided to remove the tile and get the granite on the fireplace. My contractor says that we dont have to do alot of sanding. since he just laid the tile and didnt grout it he thinks he can get the surface pretty smooth. the only con is that the whole fireplace has mortar on it now and I dont think we can put wood over the mortor. If we get the granite the way it is now being undimensional, do you think we could visually even it out by getting a slightly bigger hearth? we have to use a full slab anyway for it to be seamless so we'll have enough available

Good decision. I kept the slate hearth and fireplace surround. My carpenter removed old wood mantel and built out the fireplace with wood and molding from Home Depot. Keeping the black saved me money. Any carpenter should be able to do this mantel surround for you and not expensive
Any slab they can cut to your dimensions.

You need to put the board back- chip off the big chunks of mortar and install the board, any good carpenter could get that done in a short amount of time, the board could even get planned thinner if needed.

Why do you want one piece? I would advise doing the surround with joints as it will allow the stone to expand and contract with the heat- horror stories on here with stone cracking on fireplaces.

Smith · More Info

This is a marble surround made with four individual pieces- I assure you the top piece of stone got hot to the touch during use.

following

ok, thx for the advice!

Do not put the granite on without adding that piece back. It wont look any better than it does right now.

I agree with Hallet & Co. about the granite. Use separate pieces for expansion, it will look fine just like the mockups I created. Regarding the piece for the mantel, you may be able to find a clear piece of poplar at a home center, but getting the right width may require ripping it. You will also notice that I added a piece of molding to the bottom edge to match the molding on the mantel legs. You may or may not be able to find that molding. Others have suggested having a new mantel made, which I agree with since the one you have is not really fantastic per say and could be better. But if the budget is limited, adding the board would be acceptable if done properly.

I would not use the surround and do the tile or whatever to the ceiling , no TV above it and I would do the tile or granite without so much movement .

We've decided to replace our mantel. Our contractor is charging us $3750 for labor and materials to build a new one. We are only getting the bottom half of the attached picture done, not the paneling above the fireplace. Is $3,750 a good price? It sounded quite high to us. We were expecting about $1500.

3750 for just the white mantel part? For this fireplace? no replacement tile work, nothing else?

I'd say it's high. is it the same guy who did the tile? and now he's going to build you the mantle? what about the granite surround? who's doing that?

personally after seeing his work, I wouldn't let him do anything else.

Ok, I thought it seemed quite high too just for the mantel only without tile or paneling above the fireplace.

I thought your original intent was a modern look? Nothing about that new surround is modern.

is it the same guy who did the tile? and now he's going to build you the mantle? what about the granite surround? who's doing that?

personally after seeing his work, I wouldn't let him do anything else.

is this the look you want?

forgo the mantle and just do the granite

We are still getting granite. Going to do a black soapstone granite on the surround. It's anew carpenter. I agree that we were definitely not letting the other tile guy do anymore work.

ok good. and soapstone is soapstone, not granite.

for that price, have him throw in the trim work up the wall.

maybe like one of these

Our goal is to do a modern look but the rest of our house is still traditional so we wanted to stick with having a mantel around the surround, but wanted a more updated nice looking mantel.

i get that, I was merely saying for the price see if he could do some added trim work above the mantle like in the pictures. you need something in that large expanse. (unless you have a pice of art that's 4' high)

this one is beautiful. it has the mantle, the trim work above the mantle and the artwork

Thanks for the examples! It's helpful for us to see. Yes, we have an art piece that is really tall that we're going to hang above.

I just texted the carpenter about the price and he reduced it down to $3,250. Still seems high to me :-)

all depends on the quality of his work. is he using MDF? is he painting it?

why don't you get another quote or two for the same work and see where the price falls?

He's using wood and seems to be really good. But I agree, we should get more quotes.

what kind of wood? wood expands and contracts. You want to use MDF panels, especially if he's painting. (is he also going to paint?) There's no sense in using 'good wood' if it's going to be painted. and of course 'good wood' is also more expensive. you need to find out what he's using and what his paint protocol is

Ok, good call. I assumed he was using wood but I'll double check. He said he doesn't do any painting.

lol..so he wants over 3K to build that mantle, using pre-primed MDF or paint grade wood and he isn't even going to paint? That would be a no for me. Call in someone else. sounds like he doesn't want work.

is this basically what you want? can't imagine this being 3200 bucks,,,and not even painting it?

have you looked at pre made mantles? this is from Wayfair $500 for another 500 or 1000, I'm sure you could get something really nice

Just wanted to check back in and show our results for the fireplace. We ended up going with black leathered granite and had a carpenyer rebuild the mantel. All the advice we got on here was very helpful, so Thank You! We really like how it turned out.

I must say, with all the back and forth I was skeptical as to how this would come out......but it is beautiful! Good job on your vision!

Thanks!😀

Looks great. What a difference and with the tall picture above it now has the right proportion for the room and tall ceiling. Good job.

Thanks!! Your suggestions helped alot!

That is gorgeous...love it. Love this entire space!

Now all you need is the finishing touch of some burning glass and a frame screen.

Shown Above: Custom Frame Screen in Satin Nickel (or polished) with Azuria Burning Glass Crystals

NewHome, amazing results. good for you! looks very nice. love the art work too

I mean, what a diff some paint and granite makes!

Thank you! @Beth H. your suggestions were much appreciated 😁

Thanks @Hansen Wholesale! Yes, the screen would enhance it even more. Thanks for the suggestion...currently browsing on the website.😀

I'd like to use your pics for before/afters on here to show others.

and can I just say how much better the windows look w/o the mini blinds??? I tell people this constantly! now I can show them.

what color did you end up w/on the walls? great shade.

There are a lot of options to trim your fireplace and I can show you how many of them will look. What I really need is a high resolution picture like that straight on shot you posted here on Houzz. You can read instructions for emailing pictures for our Fireplace Design Service here.

You did SUCH a good job!

Looks great, complete transformation.

Thanks you guys!!😃

@Beth H. that's no problem! I didn't realize how much better we liked the space without the mini blinds until the painters took them down to paint. We actually have the same exact wall color SW Alpalca. It was painted in flat vs satin and it looked better for some reason!

Looks absolutely FAB U LOUS!

One thing you may want to consider? In lieu of the "fluffed" leopard accent pillows on sofa? Cover the smaller bolster pillows behind them, same leopard.Why? Because your seating is so beautifully crisp and architectural.! I wouldn't detract from those lovely shapes. I also notice no lower lamp lighting and it IS possible to add that with no loss of that beautifully edited result. !!

Lovely room : )

Thanks for the suggestion @Jan Moyer! We've been looking for a floor lamp for a while. These both would work great.

I checked our clearance models and found this one on factory clearance for over 50% OFF with an additional 20% OFF w/Coupon: FLASHSALE

Contemporary adjustable floor lamp by Maxim Lighting at Hansen Wholesale

We have lots more, but I thought this was a fantastic deal that would work in your home.